Ezekiel 16 Study Notes

16:26 Spiritual prostitution involved illicit worship of idols. It also included choosing and developing political and military alliances for security (promiscuous acts with Egyptian men; see Is 23:17-18). To reflect God’s revulsion over these alliances, Ezekiel described these illicit lovers as “having oversized organs.” He referred to them as your well-endowed neighbors.

16:30-34 Prostitutes normally engaged in illicit sexual relations as a means of earning income, but Jerusalem had descended so far into sin that she scorned the payment a prostitute normally received (1Co 7:22-23).

16:35-38 The public humiliation of a prostitute by exposing her nakedness is mentioned in Jr 13:22,26; Hs 2:10; and Nah 3:5. According to the law, this degradation was to be followed by stoning and sometimes by burning (Dt 22:22; Ezk 16:40).

16:39-40 Contracts discovered from Nuzi (fifteenth century BC, northern Iraq) specified that if a wife divorced her husband, she would “go out naked.”

16:41-43 This form of punishment (they will burn your houses) was not uncommon in the OT (Jdg 12:1; 15:6). The expression bring their conduct on their own head is also used in 11:21; 17:19; 22:31.

16:44-45 Jerusalem was like her mother, a Hethite, who was married to an Amorite, the people who were removed from Canaan by the Israelites because their sins had reached an intolerable level (Gn 15:16). God’s justice now seemed to require that any Israelites left in their land should also be removed.

16:46-47 The Israelites had become worse than Sodom, the city infamous for its corruption (Dt 32:32; Is 1:10; Jr 23:14). Sodomy is a sexual act named after the homosexual perversions at Sodom (Gn 19:5-29). Sodomy is “detestable” according to Lv 18:22; 20:13. The Bible frequently compares cities or peoples to Sodom, which was taken to be the epitome of evil and degradation (Dt 29:23; 32:32; Is 1:9-10; 3:9; Lm 4:6; Mt 10:15; 11:23-24; Jd 7).

16:48-52 Samaria and Sodom were Judah’s sisters in sin. If God had not punished Judah, whose sins were so much worse than Samaria’s and Sodom’s, he would have been unjust.

To‘evah means abomination (Ezk 16:22) and detestable (Dt 7:26; 12:31) thing. Context may indicate detestable practices (Ezr 9:1) or acts (Jr 7:10) and abhorrent and detestable idols (Jr 16:18). To‘evah describes what is culturally (Gn 43:32), ethically, or religiously abhorrent (Gn 43:34), detestable (Ex 8:26), and repulsive (Ps 88:8). The wicked and righteous are detestable to one another (Pr 29:27). God detests idolatry (Dt 27:15), related practices (Dt 18:10-12), prostitution (Dt 23:18), transvestism (Dt 22:5), homosexuality (Lv 18:22), child sacrifice (Dt 12:31), false prophecy (Jr 6:15), empty religious ritual (Is 1:13), and other sins (Pr 6:16-19). Ta‘av (22x), apparently from to‘evah, means abhor (Dt 7:26), despise (Dt 23:7), or loathe (Ps 107:18). Passive-reflexive verbs denote be detestable (1Ch 21:6), worthless (Is 14:19), or revolting (Jb 15:16). Causative verbs signify commit a detestable act (1Kg 21:26) or what is vile (Ps 14:1) and commit abhorrently (Ezk 16:52).

16:53-58 God is not predicting a literal rebuilding and return for Sodom and Samaria. But “God will one day bless other cities as well, forgiving many people their sins . . . He will eventually establish an existence where righteousness prevails and rebellion against him is no more” (Douglas Stuart).

16:56 The phrase when you were proud refers to the golden days of Jerusalem during the reign of David and the beginning of Solomon’s reign.

16:59 Jerusalem’s contempt toward the oath and the breaking of the covenant would be answered by the suspension of God’s own covenant obligations. Judah’s sin was especially grievous because she had despised the oath of obedience she made to the Lord at Sinai (Ex 19:6). The current generation had reached the limit of God’s forbearance. In some sense God severed his relationship with that generation, though without breaking his covenant promises.

16:60-61 References to the Lord remembering his covenant occur only in relationship to the patriarchal covenants (Gn 9:15-16; Ex 2:24; 6:5; Lv 26:42,45; Ps 105:8). The mention of God remembering his covenant is contrasted with Jerusalem’s forgetting the terms of her relationship with God (Ezk 16:22,43). When this new relationship is established, the people will remember their ways and be ashamed. The permanent covenant is the new covenant spoken of in Is 59:21; 61:8; and Jr 31:31-34, but it should be viewed as closely related to the Abrahamic covenant. The features of the new covenant were actually the outworking of the basic elements of God’s promises to Abraham (Is 55:3; Jr 32:40).

16:62 Prophetic passages that announce the restoration of Israel (I will establish my covenant with you) reflect the teaching of Dt 30:3. The letters to the churches in the book of Revelation illustrate how God acts in a similar way by disciplining his church (Rv 2:14,20).